Churchill Chronicles 3
by Doc Lee
Summary: Part three of the continuing chronicles of the Churchill and it's crew. Based in the Stargate-Verse, but focused on Original characters with cameo's from familiar faces in the SG-Verse. Rated M for some potty mouth-ness and a little bit of battle action, but nothing too graphic with the latter. Enjoy :)


Ladies and Gentlemen... Here is Churchill Three. As you will see, i've altered the way that i set up the chapters a bit, and added chapter titles as well. Again, as with the first two, the characters i've created to live alongside the characters created (and owned by MGM, ETC) are potty mouths, so there is a bit of swearing in this story. My current plan is to have an update a week and to not have the rather poor update history of the last two stories... Lets hope this happens, LOL. Hope you enjoy... also, i'm always up for constructive comments that help me make these stories better for people to read, so if you want to leave a constructive review, then please do so... flames will be used to keep my knees warm.

To specify, most of the characters within this story are owned by other people, if you've seen them in Stargate before, then they aren't mine.

Gulping down the cold drink, Flight Lieutenant James Johnson sighed as he put the pint glass back on the table. Leaning his head back against the booth he was sat in, his thoughts once again ran back to the missing member of his ship crew, and the woman that owned his heart.

Three months had passed since he had left her in Atlantis to recover from the injuries she'd received from being captured on an alien planet. Three months since he had ignored the fear that gnawed in his gut that leaving her in the Ancient City was not a good idea.

As James and Richard had arrived in Earth's orbit they'd watched as the USS Pendergast left orbit on a mission to the City. When the ship failed to return from its mission on time, James had realized in horror that something had gone wrong out in the Pegasus Galaxy.

What should have been a simple bombing run on the Asuran home planet, to destroy what was widely thought to be an Earth attack fleet, clearly hadn't been so simple, and when repeated attempts to contact Atlantis failed, plans were created to send the newly repaired Daedalus, with the Odyssey's ZPM connected to its power core, to the City in the hope that it was still there.

With Colonel Caldwell suffering a violent case of food poisoning from a café in his home town, it was decided to have Colonel Samantha Carter take command of the ship.

It had been six weeks since any news had returned from the ship.

'James,' Flight Officer Richard McLaren slid into the booth James was sat in. 'We need you back at the ship. John's managed to reconfigure the Asgard beams to pack a bigger punch. Ok, it's only point eight of a percent, but still….'

'So we've upgraded the hyper death beams,' James muttered sourly, his gaze firmly on the glass of coke he held in his hands. 'So what? She's gone.'

'The hell she is, ' Richard snapped his fingers between his friends face and the glass in his hand. 'What do you think she's going to do when she gets back and finds you've been moping instead of doing your duty? She's gonna kick ya arse to kingdom come and back, that's what.'

Standing up Richard pinched the bridge of his nose before he continued. 'Now, if Hamilton finds you here instead of on the Churchill getting ready to take the equipment back to Earth, he's going to have you for breakfast. I know the lack of news is hard for you. It's hell for me, and I'm not in love with Lou.'

'We've lost friends in the forces, damn close friends, but we've all had to carry on with our duties. You cannot let the fact Lou isn't with us right now affect yours,' Richard sighed. 'Or those that are against the modified Frat Regs will have another bullet in their gun . Look, even if you aren't mentally on the ship, just make sure you are physically.'

Sighing James gulped the last of his drink down. 'Give me a few minutes and I'll be there.'

'Good.' Richard turned and headed out the small Alcohol-sparse Bar.

SCENE

'You think this is just about you?' Richard muttered to himself as he entered the large cargo hold. Stepping around one of the numerous small crates that sat in amongst the other, larger crates that filled the hold, he stopped by the small lift next to the cargo door. 'You think it's just you suffering eh?'

'The fuck it is,' Richard snapped and kicked out at a nearby crate as the lift doors opened. Still ranting to himself, Richard stepped inside. 'God! You know how much I've wanted a sister after losing Rachel.' Muttering to himself, Richard stalked down the walkway, pausing before the stairwells to the bridge to calm his emotions.

Stepping onto the bridge, Richard was greeted by one of the bigger changes that the upgrades: A fourth member of the HMSS Churchill's crew.

Warrant Officer Walter 'John' McClain had been a point weapons specialist aboard the HMS Illustrious before he had been recruited into the RSF. Walter, who had been nicknamed John in reference to the Die Hard character and Bruce Willis' actual first name, was not the image of the front-line soldier. A sweet tooth and his short 5'8'' stature resulted in a slightly chubby figure. A crack shot with the pistol and known to be slightly trigger happy with an automatic, John had had to overcome a humiliating injury to his left hand that resulted in the loss of his trigger and little finger on the hand.

The injury had been received in an attack by a jealous shooting range competitor that had objected to being beaten in what John had thought was a friendly competition. The attacker was still residing in Colchester five years later and would do for a very long time to come.

'Hey Richard,' John waved his damaged hand. 'Any news?'

'Nope,' Richard replied as he slipped into the navigator's seat. 'Still nothing from Pegasus. I don't know how long we can continue with no news. James is coming apart at the seams and I'm sure I'm close behind. As much as I loath to say this but I'm starting to lose the fear of hearing that she's dead if it means we know what's going on.'

'If it's any consolation,' John smiled slightly as his brain registered movement from the access hatch. 'From what I've heard and read about the Flight Officer, she won't be lying down doing fuck all.'

'Of course she wouldn't be,' James announced his arrival on the bridge. 'Listen, about my surliness recently.'

Sir?' John innocently replied.

Without another word a grinning James slid into the 'Captains Chair' (As it had unofficially been named) and pulled the tablet computer from its slot on the side of the chair. 'So we've got a departure time of... now? Why didn't you say Richard?'

'Cuz we needed James not Flight Lt. Johnson in charge here,' Richard replied as he flicked switches and typed commands into the navigation system. 'We are ready to go on your command.'

'Control...this is the Churchill requesting permission to depart.' James said into the radio set into the arm of his chair.

A moment later the voice of Air Cdre Craig Hamilton reverberated through the cabin. 'Permission granted Churchill, the doors are open. Good travels.'

'Thank you Sir.' James replied as Richard brought the large transport craft off its station and slowly guided it towards the rapidly expanding entrance to the underground hanger. Once again James marvelled at the luck the RSF had received in finding the cavernous storage facility left over by the ancients millions of year ago when they left the planet, located on the opposite side of the Galaxy to Earth.

What fate gave them Murphy delighted in taking away as while the facility was largely intact, there were no vast treasure troves of goodies to be found in the place short of the controls to the facilities Stargate and hanger doors.

Gliding out into the access cavern James caught a glimpse of the Corvette prototype that was being developed. The development of this ship had continued as it had been deemed that the modifications would only take place at Area 51, thus freeing up the small handful of off-world development locations to continue their work.

'Hope they hurry up with that thing,' John grumbled. 'Once they get that ship working then we can get on with the real task of supplying the outposts and not drifting aimlessly around the planets on patrol.'

'I'm sure that they are going as fast as they can John.' James replied as the ship began to build up speed travelling along the large passageway towards open air. The facility had been originally built to allow access to smaller Ancient ships via a long cavern passage that lead to the nearby ocean. A second smaller passageway extended upwards from the hanger to the planet's surface. This smaller passage allowed access to both Puddle Jumpers and a small Ancient fighter craft documented in the Asgard database on the USS Odyssey.

The RSF's small number of freighters could easily access the large hanger via the ocean entrance, while a single Squadron of F-302s and four Gate Jumpers used the smaller surface entrance. The Gate Jumper was a successful creation that mirrored the abilities and functions of the Ancient's Puddle Jumpers. The four craft on the base were the majority of the Gate Jumper fleet the RSF operated, with two more located on Earth.

The single DSC-304, called the HMSS Illustrious and still stuck in the long S&P line on Earth, would have to make do with parking in Geo-sync orbit over the facility and operating both Asgard transport beams and Goa'uld rings to travel planet side.

Seeing the literal light at the end of the tunnel James slipped on a pair of sunglasses. 'Man I love natural sunlight...much better than the artificial stuff we get back there.' John muttered as the ship shot out the cave and into the sunlight.

'Running standard Atmo exit procedure.' Richard announced as he flicked a series of switches, typed a command into the computer keyboard next to him and banked the ship upwards.

'Take us into hyperspace Richard,' James ordered, once the ship had slipped into space. 'Get us back home.'

'Roger.' Richard started his routine of flicking switches and typing commands before the ship lurched and was thrust into the shifting blue tunnel that was hyperspace.

'Right,' James slapped his hands onto his knees. 'I'm going to head back and get some kip before my shift out here, I suggest you do the same John.'

Yes Sir.' John replied.

Heading down to his living quarters James kicked off his boots and unzipped his flight suit before collapsing on his bunk.

'Where are you Lou?' James mumbled as he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
